Tag: garden

Right, a bit of catching up to do - this post contains several sets of photos from the last few months - this is a re-post of several posts I put up earlier as I thought it better to lump them together into one.
St Mary Redcliffe
Back in April I bought a new camera - a Fuji X-T20, and this was the first trip out with it. Given that my office at the time was pretty much next door to St Mary Redcliffe, it was nice and simple to drop in one lunchtime. I'd worked there for over 10 years and this was the first time I'd been in to take photos...
The main reason for looking at the Fuji was practicality - when we went to Cornwall last year, I found I was leaving some of the Nikon kit behind because it was so damn heavy and it's just daft to have kit and not use it. I'd been looking at...

A tip from a friend led us to the Fresh Air sculpture exhibition at Quennington in Gloucestershire - a bi-annual outdoor exhibition of contemporary sculpture - and what a tip it was. A huge garden, full of really interesting sculpture - we could have spent an absolute fortune!
Well worth a look, the next one opens in June 2019.
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A few weeks ago we saw a Gardeners' World feature on Hestercombe in Somerset, so we decided to pay a visit. We've found giving up our National Trust membership quite liberating - we'd only tend to consider going to their sites on the grounds we'd have to pay for anywhere else, so having to pay everywhere means we can go (theoretically) anywhere.
Anyway, Hestercombe is lovely, well worth a visit.
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On Saturday I visited Fast Rabbit Farm in Devon with friends - a large garden (no rabbits that I saw), almost too large to photograph well! It's not the sort of formally planted garden I often visit - much more of a sprawling wild place. Rather nice though, and I didn't even get round all of it. There's also a plant centre, where I took most of the flower photos.
The afternoon was further improved by a viola recital from my friend Rachel, which was particularly lovely in the setting. Oh yes, and it was a clothes-optional day so we were all able to enjoy the garden as nature intended.
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Rather than ruin all that relaxation by dashing back through France in one go, we tend to take our time and have a couple of overnight stops on the way home, which also enables us to do a bit of sightseeing.
On the Sunday morning, we went to the château at Chenonceau, just east of Tours - actually on the Cher river rather than the Loire, which is where you tend to think the famous châteaux are.
As well as being the one with the arches over the river, it has two excellent formal gardens. And on top of that, it also has a magnificent vegetable, herb and flower garden, which it would be easy to miss - and which you really shouldn't!
On the Monday, we were further north and visited Arromanches, Gold Beach on D-Day and where the Mulberry Harbour was - and where bits of it still are.
We were lucky that the tide was out, so we were able to walk around some...